Conventionally, as image processing technologies have improved and various types of devices have been made more compact and the like, digital multifunction devices, which have in a single machine a copier function, a fax function, a printer function, a scanner function, and the like, have been developed and have arrived on the market. Such digital multifunction devices are usually network connected in various types of network environments such as a LAN (Local Area Network), and can be commonly used by plural computers.
Further, in recent years, digital copiers have been developed in which a mass storage hard disk is provided in the main body, and which are equipped with a copy server function by which image data which has been copied or printed is accumulated in the hard disk and can be printed again at a predetermined time.
Moreover, digital multifunction devices have been developed which provide a document management function by which, without the users being conscious thereof, transmits and accumulates, in a server computer which is connected to a network, all of the image data which is copied or printed, and thereafter, images which have been printed in the past can be referred to or searched for via the server computer and can be reprinted.
However, in digital multifunction devices provided with a copy server function, a problem arises in that the image data accumulated in the hard disk can only be used for reprinting, and cannot be used for other applications.
Moreover, a digital multifunction device which provides a document management function, a wide-range network environment is needed in order to transmit all of the images. Further, from the assumption that all of the image data is accumulated, in order to convert image data into a small capacity format and accumulate the data, a problem arises in that the quality of the images deteriorates at the time or reprinting.